When vice becomes value: the amazing texture of wood due to fungal lesions

“I looked at the texture of the wood and was stunned! How like a very old map of North America!!! And Antarctica!

And, in general, you can find quite a lot there, if you dissolve your imagination.

Such was the commentary on the video clip about turning such a bowl.

Bowl of red rowan. Author's work

But this wood certainly has defects, and more specifically, a fungal infection.

I did some research on this topic and here's what I found.

It turns out there are several varieties of such lesions. Some affect the strength of wood, others do not.

For example, there is a so-called "inner darkness" - this is a lesion of the core of the trunk, occurs in a growing tree, does not affect hardness and areas of the core can be painted pink, red, brown, purple or even black.

There is also a well-known sapwood blue, also does not affect the hardness of wood and can be not only blue, but also other colors.

There is also

But rot has many options: variegated sieve, brown fissured, white fibrous, marble rot.

The degree of damage to wood by rot can be different, up to the complete unsuitability of such wood.

And it seems to me that such a texture of wood is caused precisely by the defeat of wood by fungi, which cause different types of rot.

Here is another example of red rowan blanks, and, I think, it could not have done without mushroom damage.

Also, this plate of their Manchurian walnut clearly has fungal lesions on the wood. But it’s hard for me personally to say which ones, and probably it’s not so important, since the texture of the tree looks unusual and beautiful. By the way, in terms of hardness, all parts of this plate are approximately the same.

I also have this piece of pine wood. I plan to carve a bowl out of it. I think these brown streaks will look great in the finished product.

In my opinion, it looks like the same "blue", only brown.

This is how vices can turn out to be not even vices at all, but wood that is quite suitable for making beautiful things.

Thank you for reading. I will be glad for your support in the form of a like and a subscription to the channel. And see other posts on the channel.

Alexander.

P.S. I also invite you to your site.